US Coast Guard retrieves remaining debris, human remains of Titan submersible

The Titan submersible's remaining debris and presumed human remains were recovered on Tuesday (Oct 10) by the US Coast Guard, months after the submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion while it was on its way to explore the wreckage of Titanic ship. 

All five passengers on board the 23,000-pound vessel Titan, which was roughly the size of a minivan, lost their lives shortly after the vessel's contact with its mother ship was disconnected, around 1 hour and 45 minutes after the submarine dived into the North Atlantic Ocean towards the Titanic. 

Last week, the marine safety engineers from the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation recovered the evidence from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor and “successfully transferred to a US port for cataloguing and analysis,” stated a release from the Coast Guard.

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“Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals,” the release stated. 

The salvage mission was a follow-up to initial recovery operations after the implosion of the submersible, stated the Coast Guard.

The Marine Board of Investigation stated that they have been co-ordinating with the National Transportation Safety Board and other international investigative agencies for scheduling a “joint evidence review” of the debris recovered from the ocean, after which the next steps of forensic testing will be determined. 

However, the board will continue interviewing witnesses and analysing evidence “ahead of a public hearing regarding this tragedy,” it said.

The failure of Titan to resurface on June 18 led to a massive international search which captured the attention of the world for days. The officials on June 22 confirmed that the Titan submersible had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”

The five passengers who lost their lives were identified as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; businessman Hamish Harding; diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; billionaire Shahzada Dawood; and Dawood’s 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.

Earlier, the Coast Guard said that it had recovered presumed human remains as well as parts of the Titan after locating the debris field which was at a depth of 12,500 feet (3,800 metres).

The officials had offloaded the materials at an unnamed port. The Marine Board of investigation of the Coast Guard has continued its analysis and witness interviews are being conducted ahead of a public hearing on the tragic accident. The vessel's operator OceanGate has since gone out of business.  

(With inputs from agencies)
 

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